NRL State of Origin 2017

TheState of Origin 2017 series will be the 36th annual best-of-three series between the Queensland and New South Wales rugby league teams. Before this series Queensland had won 20 times, NSW 13 times, with two series drawn. Queensland are the current title holders, having won 2-1 in 2016.

State of Origin 2017Former Queensland rugby league legend Kevin Walters will coach Queensland for the 2nd year after his maiden series win in 2016. Former Canberra, New South Wales and Australia captain Laurie Daley will coach New South Wales for the 5th year, looking for his 2nd series win after New South Wales’ 2-1 win in 2014.

The State of Origin 2017 Live series is the annual best-of-three Australian rugby league football match series between two state representative sides, the New South Wales Blues and the Queensland Maroons.

Referred to as Australian sport’s greatest rivalry, the State of Origin series is one of Australia’s and the region’s premier sporting events, attracting huge television audiences and usually selling out the stadiums in which the games are played.Despite the existence of international tournaments and State of Origin being a domestic competition, it is frequently cited as being the highest-level of rugby league played anywhere in the world.

Players are selected to represent the Australian state in which they played their first senior rugby league game, hence the name ‘state of origin’. Prior to 1980 players were only selected for interstate matches on the basis of where they were playing their club football at the time. In both 1980 and 1981 there were two interstate matches under the old selection rules and one experimental “State of Origin” match. From 1982 onwards a best-of-three match series has been played around the middle of the rugby league season for the State of Origin shield. Since its inception, total victories for each side were once extraordinarily even, however between 2006 and 2013 Queensland won every series.